The comic had just wrapped up an interview on The Howard Stern Show in New York, and Stern, who knew Mandel suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), thought it would be funny to force him to touch a dirty doorknob…on air. Mandel asked other people around the studio to open the door for him, but they were in on the gag, too.

“I started to panic and go through anxiety,” he says in the video testimonial above. “I said, ‘I see a psychiatrist. I have OCD. I’m medicated…'”

After they finally relented and let him through the door, Mandel walked out into the street. He was standing there, visibly shaken and embarrassed, when a man approached him: “I just heard you on Howard Stern.”

“And I went ‘Oh, my God. What do I do now? Do I just run into traffic and just end it here?'”

But then the stranger whispered two words in his ear that forever changed his life. Watch the video above to find out what he said.

It’s time we started talking openly about our mental health. Join the conversation on Bell Let’s Talk Day, January 27, and help end the stigma around mental illness. For every text message sent and mobile or long-distance call made by Bell Canada and Bell Aliant customers, Bell will donate five cents to Canadian mental health programs. The same goes for anyone sending a tweet using #BellLetsTalk or sharing the Bell Let’s Talk image on Facebook. But talking about it is just the first step: Visit letstalk.bell.ca for more ways you can effect change and build awareness around mental health.